Oral history interview with Don Payne, Joe Buck, and Don English conducted by Perry Kaufman on November 25, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Payne, the head of the Las Vegas News Bureau, relates moving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a child, and deciding on a career in advertising and marketing. He talks about his early career and the history of the bureau. Later, Buck and English, both photographers with the bureau, join Payne in discussing the goals of the the organization. They relate the need to establish that Las Vegas was more than gambling and how their marketing and photographs focus on the relaxing, fun, and luxurious aspects of a vacation in the area. They talk about the large volume of photographs produced by the bureau and the success of some nationwide, including the "floating craps table" and the atomic bomb test mushroom cloud framed between two casinos in downtown Las Vegas. They conclude by discussing how they have expanded their marketing to include destinations close to Las Vegas, including Lake Mead, the National Parks, and California destinations within "a day's drive".
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Dorothy and Don Tomlin conducted by Joyce Marshall on April 3, 2002 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Don Tomlin relates his early life in Los Angeles, California, military service during World War II, returning to California and working as a bartender. He then talks about moving to Alaska and meeting Dorothy, who was there as choreographer and manager for her professional dance troupe. The couple then talk at length about moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Dorothy describes the long hours involved in running her dancers for the El Rancho Vegas Hotel showroom. Both talk about the hotel's owner Beldon Katleman and Don describes opening a men's clothing store near the Moulin Rouge Hotel, catering to both the Westside community and the professional bands that played at the hotels. Finally, the couple describe retiring to travel, buying a resort hotel in California and selling it after repeated flooding, returning to Las Vegas and settling down to help their son run his photography business.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Harriet Trudell conducted by Claytee D. White on April 19, 2007 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Project. Trudell begins by describing her early history and the powerful influence of her father on her life, beliefs, and politics. She continues talking about politicians that she admires from Hubert Humphrey to Harry Reid, and her desire to work to improve the lives of the marginalized. She relates early education to make her a "southern lady" and her rejection of the concept, as well as her later education in Florida and beginning to lobby for the labor unions. She discusses her marriage and move to Las Vegas, Nevada, her career working for the presidential campaign of Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and the campaign for Senator George McGovern in 1972. Trudell describes Nevada as a conservative state, and explains what she means saying Nevada was the "Mississippi of the West." Trudell also discusses working for Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan, the Democratic Party, her ancestors who fought in the American Civil War, and prominent moments in United States political history. Trudell concludes by describing her involvement in the women's movement and why she felt it was important.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Allison and Hugh Wallace conducted by Claytee D. White on March 17, 2006 for the Hurricane Katrina Survivors in Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, the Wallaces relate their upbringing, families, and educational attainments. Later, they talk about their experiences with Hurricane Katrina, evacuating and then returning to find their neighborhood overrun with looters and their home severely damaged by the flooding. They discuss the extreme difficulty they faced finding money and resources as they faced loss of employment, housing, and access to their bank accounts. They also describe the emergency relief efforts of various state, national, and federal agencies. Finally, they relate that these difficulties led to their decision to move to Las Vegas, Nevada and comment on the difficulty of maintaining contact with friends and colleagues who also left Louisiana.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with David Welles conducted by Patrick Carlton on March 27, 2002 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Welles first relates his family background and the circumstances that led to the family settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1940s. He relates numerous anecdotes about growing up and attending school, and then explains how a back problem ended his chances for a career in the Navy and led him to consider less physically demanding fields. He took jobs surveying and drafting, which led to his decision to study architectural engineering, taking his degree at the University of Oklahoma. Meeting and marrying while he was in Oklahoma, the couple returned to Las Vegas, where he took multiple jobs at different architectural and engineering firms, gaining experience toward licensure as an architect. By the early 1970s, he had established his own firm with a partner, gaining a state contract to build elementary schools. Welles then speaks at length about partnering with the Daly Group to design and build the UNLV Lied Library and ends the interview with another extended discussion of his long-time involvement in the Rotary Club.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Carolyn Whaley conducted in 2005 by an unknown interviewer for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Whaley discusses her early interest in music and her successful audition for the United States Air Force Women's Air Force (WAF) Band in 1959. She explains that the band was the only all-female band in the military between 1951 and 1961, and shared a number of stories about the function and activities of the band. Later, she discusses her civilian career as a music teacher in Barstow, California and decision to move to Las Vegas, Nevada after her retirement in 2000. She also remarks on the lack of interest that officials at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas showed in veterans.
Archival Collection
The UNLV Libraries Collection of Gambling Related Sheet Music (1890-1987) consists of primarily early 20th century American gambling-related sheet music. This collection is most noteworthy for the covers' bright and colorful imagery, including white gentlemen playing cards, imagery from card and related games, and some with offensive stereotypes and caricatures of African Americans. The material was created by a wide range of designers, composers, and publishers from various places, including New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; and Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This collection contains illustrations which depict Black and Asian individuals in racist caricatures, photographs of white individuals wearing blackface, and some song titles include derogatory language or racial slurs.
Archival Collection
"Help Nevada Get In The Scrap!" Poster (approximately 1941-1945) is a single poster produced by the Office of Civilian Defense during World War II as part of the "Victory Home" (V-Home) campaign. The poster outlines what common household items like tin cans, iron and steel scrap, and stockings and rags can be salvaged and sent to war production plants. The poster also lists the five point program of all V-Homes and also includes spaces where households could write the names of their Block Leader, Salvage Chairman, and Air Raid Warden. This poster lists Nellie Cashman of Las Vegas, Nevada as the Block Leader.
Archival Collection
Oral history roundtable interviews with Jerry Jackson, Jillian Hrushowy, Dawnie Sachs, and Trenna Howard moderated by Su Kim Chung on May 17, 2015 for the Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project. The panel discusses their experiences working in Las Vegas productions including Folies Bergere and Lido de Paris as part of an opening event for the exhibit The French Connection: Lido de Paris and Folies Bergere in Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
Oral history panel composed of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students Lisa McAllister, Larry Sampson, John Grygo, and Ashley Smith along with community narrators Jerrie Merritt, Geraldine Kirk Hughes, Keith Brantley, and Hannah Brown, moderated by Julia Lee and Claytee White on March 30, 2016 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. The group discusses working with each other during the collection of oral histories for the project, the value of the interchange for both narrator and interviewer, the value of oral histories as repositories of individual and collective memory, and related stories about their experiences.
Archival Collection